Mixed Nuts

I like cashews. A lot. I got a big jar of them once for Christmas. One thing about cashews, though, is that you can only eat so many before they get kinda'... boring. Same thing with peanuts or pistachios. So, I'd rather plunk myself down in front of a jar of mixed nuts. It's more flavorful. It's really the peanuts that make the cashews taste so good.

A ward is like a jar of mixed nuts (some wards more than others...). There's the peanuts and the cashews and given the the chance we'd all climb into our own separate jars with the same kind of nuts. Then God gives us callings. And suddenly you're a cashew and an Elder's Quorum President and the Lord calls a peanut and an almond as your counselors. If it were up to us, we'd pick people to serve with from our own jar, and it would be boring.

I've served in a couple of presidencies as counselors to people I wouldn't have done much with otherwise. Case in point, a while ago I served as 1st in the Elder's Quorum. The Prez was about 20 years older and a much different kind of man than I. He's was soft spoken, an engineer by trade. Phil was a about 180 degrees from me in personality and temperament and his understanding of the Gospel was far beyond mine. It's not that I didn't like Phil, it's just that before that calling, he was someone I never really spent any time with because we're so different and "birds of a feather...". We did, however, become good friends while serving together.

That's happened a number of times. Right now, my 1st counselor in YM is another soft spoken engineer (I'm a kinda' loud extrovert, in case you couldn't guess yet) and I love to spend time with him. We might have chatted here and there before we were called together, but I don't think I'd have gotten to admire him so much as a friend without us being in YM together.

He's a cashew. I'm a peanut. Mixed up together in a great big jar with a bunch of other nuts.